New Yorkers in 31 of the city's police precincts could soon get their local officer's phone number, part of a new NYPD program focused on neighborhood policing.
The precincts in the program are getting a neighborhood coordinating officer on every shift -- overnights, 8 to 4 p.m., and 4 p.m. to midnight. At all times, someone at the dozens of NYPD squads in the program will be as familiar with the neighborhood as the people who live there. And residents who are worried about crime will have a new way to reach police: emailing or texting their neighborhood officer.
"We want them to do that. We're not gonna give everybody the number at once, but they're already doing it," said new NYPD Commissioner Jimmy O'Neill.
The 700 new officers sworn into the NYPD Tuesday are among the first to enter an NYPD embracing the throwback beat-policing strategy.
"I believe it's going to be the model for American policing," Mayor Bill de Blasio said Tuesday.
Peter Katsiaris, a restaurant owner on 31st Street in Astoria, one of the precincts testing out the program, said neighborhood officers spent an hour in his shop Tuesday just getting to know the staff. Then they handed out their phone numbers.
"It was great. I was surprised," he said. "We can reach them now, which is good because we feel like we are always at risk of crime."
Others worry cops might rely too much on smartphone and not enough on walking the beat.
"They need to get out of the patrol car," said Tasha Turner of Far Rockaway.
O'Neill is betting on neighborhood policing to restore trust in parts of the city that are still wary about the NYPD since stop-and-frisk reached its peak several years ago. That was central in his message to the new recruits.
"It's important that members of the public, particularly victims of crime, always trust us," he said. "And trust is a huge issue. Feeling comfortable talking to us."
O'Neill, who has been with the NYPD for his entire career, said in August the program draws on some of the same lessons he learned in 1983 when he was a rookie transit officer patrolling a subway system ravaged by crime. Good cops, he said, learn "how to talk to every type of person imaginable."
Some civil liberties activists and others have cautioned that the new emphasis on neighborhood policing is little more than repackaging a limited concept.
"Having more officers in the neighborhood and having people know each others' names has nothing to do with whether people are going to be held accountable for brutality," said Joo-Hyun Kang, the director of Communities United for Police Reform, a group that advocates for changing police practices.
And in a tough world, friendliness only goes so far.
Officers can be trained to bring "softer skills" to resolving problems, but "they're not social workers, they're not camp counselors - they're law enforcement," Eugene O'Donnell, a professor of police studies at John Jay College of Criminal Justice, said in August.
"You can be nice to people, but you can't be nice to everybody," he said.
By all accounts, O'Neill was diving in headfirst, giving out his personal cellphone number to advocates who work with at-risk New Yorkers in rough city neighborhoods.